Welcome Home
by abstractular
Summary: When Sasuke comes home, he and Sakura have a little...convorsation. Only after she knocks Naruto out.


Disclaimer: …Yeah, no.

WELCOME HOME

When Sakura finally got to them, Itachi lay dead on the grass and Naruto and Sasuke both unconscious on the broken ground. She had gone to Naruto first, using her healing touch to fix all of the wounds that she could find on him. However, apparently the fight with Sasuke was harder on him than they thought it would be, the blond had burn marks on him from the chidori and so many deep wounds that if someone had seen him, they probably would have said "Look at that large black, orange, and purplish blue gooey thing!"

So, she fixed him as much as she could, and at the end of her examination, he didn't look quite so much like deep purple, but a nice lavender color. She did as much as she could, the Kyuubi would just have to do the rest. Then she went over to Sasuke, a frown on her face, and healed him just enough so that his major deep wounds would not be so deep. But lets face it, she was angry…ok, she was downright pissed at him. And it was about time that someone scolded the Uchiha. So, she left the burn from the Rasengan, the large cut that went from his shoulder to his waist, his black eyes, his broken wrists, his sprained ankle, his broken leg, and his broken ribs. Yes, all of those things should still hurt when he wakes up.

She picked him up with one arm, using her remaining chakra to hold him up, and then turned to Naruto. Well, shit. This wasn't going to work. She didn't have enough chakra to pick them both up. One seventeen-year-old male she could do, but two? Luckily for her, Hatake Kakashi happened to limp up and grab the Uzumaki. Both her, and her sensei, had been fighting another branch of the Akatsuki on the other side of the forest. Pretty much, all of the original Team Seven looked like…how can the authoress put this gently…they looked like a steamy pile of dog dung.

When they got back to Konoha, Naruto had woken up, but Sasuke was still unconscious. They dropped off the Uchiha at the hospital and heard the nurse tell them vaguely that he would live. Sakura had to roll her eyes at that; of course he would live she saved his life. Tsunade saw the three of conscious Team Seven and commented in the grace that only a Hokage could achieve.

"You look like shit in hell."

Sakura and Kakashi merely sighed and exchanged glances while Naruto smiled, only to wince at the stretching of his split lip. Then Tsunade looked over at Sasuke.

"Sakura…I know you could have healed him better than that…but…"

Then she looked at the teen, who shrugged and commented that she had run out of chakra. Tsunade knew it was a lie, and applauded the girl at her harsh way of punishment. Rasengan wounds wouldn't heal easy as pie...if you happened to live through them. Tsunade then ordered that all of Kakashi's team be put in to hospital care, much to the disappointment of said team. Kakashi had spent half of his life in a hospital, so it wasn't exactly a trip to Disneyland for him; Sakura worked there, so she didn't want to be there when she wasn't working; Naruto…well, he just had too much energy to stay cooped up in a white room with uncomfortable mattresses, bad food, and smelly medicine. But, ninja gotta do what ninja gotta do, so they followed the nurses to their rooms with out a fuss.

Within two days, Sakura and Kakashi were out of the hospital and on their feet with only a few purple bruises and light scars to show for their hard work. Three days later, Naruto was released. That very day was the same day that Sasuke happened to wake up. Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi were there to make sure that he would indeed live, and once they found that out Sakura turned to Naruto and asked him a very simple question. But to Sasuke, it sounded abnormal to come from her mouth.

"Naruto, spar with me?"

It appeared that both Kakashi and Naruto knew what she was actually trying to say.

"Naruto, I'm incredibly pissed, upset, and uncomfortable, help me vent by letting me beat you to a bloody pulp."

It appeared that Naruto had no problem with that because he grinned and nodded. Kakashi took out his orange book, and walked out of the room. Naruto grinned and waved at Sasuke, and Sakura nodded her head at him before the pair walked out.

Sasuke decided that it didn't take a total idiot to know that Sakura's anger was directed to him. It appeared that the young rose haired woman wasn't quite ready to converse with him at the moment. Sasuke would have to be a fool not to realize that Sakura had grown over the five years that he's been gone. And Uchiha Sasuke was no fool. Sakura, as Ino would say, had grown into her forehead. She was no longer the annoying little girl with the lanky limbs and flat chest. She was now the young lady with bedroom eyes, soft hair, flawless ivory skin, toned muscles, legs that went on for miles, and well…rather nice curves. Not to mention strength. That's what Sasuke noticed the most. She had strength, both physical and emotional. She could tap a ten-story brick wall, and it would crumble to the ground. Sasuke found this out physically when she clocked him across the jaw upon their second meeting.

Now, he sat in bed, staring out the window of Konoha hospital. He watched his two teammates spar outside in the back of the hospital. Naruto had just swung a powerful kick to the side of Sakura's head, which she blocked with her arm, only to slide about six feet in the dirt. They had been going at it for about a half an hour. It started where they were both serious and frowning, but about fifteen minutes into it, Naruto had said something to make Sakura burst into a fit of laughter causing the Uzumaki to land a punch into her stomach. That's when they started to spar with grins on their face and saying jokes any chance they got.

About an hour and a half later Sakura walked into Sasuke's room covered in sweat, dirt, and a few more bruises. She stared at him for a moment, only to see that he didn't have any bandages on his body, other than the cast on his leg. Then she said her first sentence to him in five years.

"No one's seen you yet?"

He shook his head and looked out the window. Sakura sighed.

"Good, I told them I would tend to you. I think you and I have a lot to talk about."

"Hn."

Sakura rolled her eyes, and opened up a drawer, taking out some gauze and fastenings. She pulled up a chair to the side of his bed.

"Take off your shirt." She ordered.

He gave her a look, which she raised an eyebrow at.

"I'm a medic, dickhead, if you want your wounds treated then you'll take off your shirt."

He said nothing, but shrugged his shoulders, causing his hospital shirt to open slightly and slide off of his shoulders, slowly falling down to his waist. Sakura leaned forward and began to wrap the gauze around his shoulder all the way around his chest and stomach. She worked in silence, wrapping his body and putting ointment on certain areas before bandaging them. In some spots, she laid her hands on the wounded, broken skin and it healed under the glowing green chakra. Sasuke could say that he objected to the feeling of her hands on his skin, but still…he was rather uncomfortable in the silence. He had never known Sakura to be silent. He was the silent one. When they were both silent it was just…ooky.

"You knocked me out."

He smirked slightly at her words. So they were going back all those years, were they?

"Yeah."

"I told you I loved you, and you knocked me out, and put me on a bench only to have me wake up to two Chunins."

"…"

"I hated you after that, did you know that?"

He shifted his eyes so that they looked at her slightly. Sakura sighed and put some ointment on his left shoulder where the Rasengan hit him.

"I hated you because…I still loved you. I thought that was some fucked up logic."

"You certainly have grown a mouth on you." Sasuke murmured.

Sakura grinned and laughed softly. "That's what happens when you hang out with Naruto and a bunch of guys."

She cleared her throat and began to bandage the Rasengan wound. "I didn't understand how I could hate you and yet love you at the same time. It seemed odd. I guess it still is. But Sasuke-kun, I grew not to hate you…after a while."

She finished wrapping him up, so he looked a little like a mummy. She then stood up to put the equipment away into the drawer, and returned to her seat next to his bed.

"I didn't hate you…but I thanked you."

He gave a confused expression and stared at her.

"You said before you left, 'from here on out, we will all choose our own path.' That was true. You see, because you left with Orochimaru…Naruto went with Jaraiya-sama. I…I became Tsunade-sama's apprentice. I got stronger than I could ever have hoped to be. That was all because you left. So I've wanted to thank you. Because…before, when we were a team, I wanted to get stronger so I could impress you. But once you left…I wanted to get stronger for myself. Not to impress some boy, but because it was something that I truly wanted for myself."

Sasuke stared somewhat amazed at her.

"What happened to you?"

Sakura stared up at him, and understand what he was really asking.

"Where is that little annoying girl who used to chase after me going 'Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun!' What happened to you?"

Sakura smiled softly.

"I killed that little girl Sasuke. The day that Naruto left to train with Jaraiya-sama, I killed her. She died the moment that I asked Tsunade to be my sensei. I became someone new. To tell you the truth, I kinda like this new shell better. The new Sakura is tougher. I like me now."

"…"

Sakura grinned at him. "So I won't be asking you out on any dates and such, sorry to disappoint you. I know you loved it when I did that."

Sasuke smirked. "Oh yeah, it was the highlight of each day."

Sakura laughed and stuck her tongue out at him.

"If you didn't already look shitty, I'd hit you. By the way, how do you feel?"

Sasuke sighed, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Worse than I look."

Sakura's grin expanded and she gave him a thumbs up. "That's awesome."

Sasuke smirked and made to swat her across the head, but she ducked out of the way.

"Ah, hey!" She lifted a finger at him. "No hitting your medic! That's an order!"

He scoffed and looked back out the window.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

Sakura sighed in bliss. "Thank you."

He smirked and nodded at her. "Hn."

She then inched closer to him.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn?"

Two strong, yet frail arms came around his neck, an alabaster cheek came in contact with his, and she whispered something in his ear that he only thought he would hear in a memory.

"Welcome home."

With that sentence, it was the end of things, and the beginning of things. It was then end of a horrible book that was about a lost boy who went down the wrong path, and the beginning of a new book. Where a boy started a new life and new friendships with some old people that he took for granted. He would make sure not to do that again.

Author's Note: Yeah, I don't know what came over me when I wrote this. But after the story I wrote of the Yondaime, I just wanted to write something with a happy ending. So, here I went. Hope it was an enjoyable read. I'm off to watch a marathon of Naruto. You know it's funny, even though I can't stand Naruto in English. I watch it anyway…because it's Naruto. But Lord help me if I hear the sentence "Believe it" one more time!


End file.
